When Saquon Barkley plunged in from one-yard out in the second quarter on Thanksgiving against the Dallas Cowboys, not only did he give the New York Giants the lead, but he broke a decades-long offensive scoring drought for the Giants on the holiday.
Saquon Barkley breaks a decades-long offensive drought for the Giants on Thanksgiving Day
The Giants finally reach the end zone on Thanksgiving Day
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
The Giants have played the sixth-most games on Thanksgiving Day, with Thursday’s game against Dallas their 16th on the holiday, but it has been a very, very long time since the Giants scored a touchdown on offense in a Thanksgiving game.
In fact, the last time the Giants had scored a touchdown on offense on Thanksgiving? It came back in 1938, in a game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants scored in the fourth quarter of that game on a 12-yard pass from Ed Danowski to Dale Burnett. That touchdown broke a 7-7 tie.
While the Giants were regular participants in a Thanksgiving Day game during the 1920s and 1930s, that game on November 24, 1938 would be their last on the holiday until 1982. That year, they would travel to take on the Detroit Lions, getting a win on the road. Lawrence Taylor’s 97-yard interception return in the fourth quarter proved the difference, as the Giants won by a final score of 13-6.
New York played on Thanksgiving next during the 1992 season, but that game saw the Giants start rookie eighth-round pick Kent Graham at quarterback against the Cowboys. New York only managed a field goal in a blowout 30-3 loss to Dallas.
The Giants next played in a Thanksgiving game during the 2009 season, in the prime-time game against the Denver Broncos, coached that year by Josh McDaniels. New York managed just a pair of field goals from Lawrence Tynes in the third quarter, falling by a final score of 26-6.
The Giants’ most recent Thanksgiving game came during the 2017 season, when New York played at Washington in the prime-time game. The Giants did at least score a touchdown in that game, on an Pick-Six from Janoris Jenkins that tied the game at ten in the third quarter. But Washington scored ten unanswered to win by a final score of 20-10.
So if you saw this play happen live in the second quarter Thursday, you witnessed a bit of football history:
Perhaps this game has even more history in store for us all on this holiday.
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